– reliable information source

Monthly Archives: February 2016

It would appear that we’re in for 2, maybe 3, new German premiums this year.

Q&A from “Developer Hour”. Alexandr Bogomolskij, publishing producer:

Q. What are your plans for 2016?A. During this year, we will release 5 or 6 major updates focused on the reworking of some aspects of the game, without introducing much content since they will contain a lot of technical changes (like the reworking done in 0.5.3.)

Q. When will you put Tirpitz and Warspite on sale once again as you promised? And where’s the premium CV?A. We didn’t promise anything. Both ships were on sale temporarily. During the last sales, almost none were sold, that’s why they won’t be put on sale in the near future. Warspite may be available at the end of May with Jutland. Regarding Tirpitz, maybe with the release of German BB’s (August).

Q. And what about a premium CV?A. Last week, we did a survey of 40k people regarding what they think about introducing a premium CV in the game. We have already modeled Saipan. We have different options: sell it to everybody, sell it only to CV players or not introduce a premium CV at all. Currently, 11% of players play CV’s. 80% don’t know how to play CV’s at all. Other reasons were already given on the forum (due to CV mirror matchmaking, it’s very difficult to release a premium CV, which could become overpowered if researchable CV’s were nerfed). According to the survey we did on the forum, European and Russian servers don’t want a premium CV whereas Asian and US servers do.

Q. Will you introduce new CV lines?A. Not this year. We have modeled all of the IJN CV’s : Kaga, Akagi, Shinano. All of them are refitted BB’s. There’s still the cruiser-carrier Tone, we may create a CV subclass starting out of the BB line.

Q. When are clans coming?A. During the first half of 2016.

Q. When do you plan on having a unified economy?A. We’re nearly done. We’ve already finished the technical part.

Q. When will you introduce new IJN and US lines, a new CV line, and a split cruiser tree?A. When it’s ready.

Q. Will you put battleship Ise in the game?A. Perhaps, in the CV subclass and it’d be researchable.

Q. Apart from Kongo and Myoko, will there be more ARP ships?A. We will examine how the event went. We have only modeled the Kongo-class so far.

Q. When do yo plan to introduce French and Italian lines?A. Not until 2017.

Q. What rating would you give the game on a scale of one to ten?A. 8, there’s still ways to improve.

Q. Whose idea was it to buff US DB’s?A. Vlegris’s and Ainen’s. Torpedoes did a lot of damage and bombs didn’t. That’s why they were buffed.

Q. When will there be a patch with CV’s nerfs?A. We have no plans to do that.

Q. When will you implement PvE content?A. During the second half of the year we will focus on PvE content, we already have a lot of plans.

Q. When will you release a premium IJN or US CV?A. US CV, this year. IJN CV, next year.

Q. When will you make CV gameplay more complex?A. We already made IJN CV gameplay more complex by adding converging torp drops; we’ll think of something for US CV’s.

Q. How many players have between 12 and 18? How does this number evolve? Is it necessary to attract them? Could you raise age rating from 12+ [In Russia, the game is forbidden to children under 12, in EU, the rating is 7+]?A. I’m in favor of raising the age restriction. The proportion of those players is less than 10%, there’s nearly no players under 16. At the time of our TV advertisement campaign, this group of people increased. Kids don’t like the game.

Q. Naturally, kids like dynamic games.A. Indeed, the game is perfect for meditation, particularly at high tiers.

Q. Do you plan to sell Diana?A. Next month with MTC (Russian phone operator).

Q. Do you plan to release low tier ships? Such as Olympia?A. Olympia is unlikely. We have some low tier ships planned, such as Smith and Katori. We don’t want to put incentives for experienced players to play with newbies.

Q. Do you plan to introduce ships not belonging to any nation present in the game? Or did it prove to be a failed experiment?A. The experience was positive, but we’d do it if Turkish, Dutch or Spanish players played more actively. Polish players play quite a lot, so we released Blyskawica. The same applies to the Pan-Asian ships. We will add Moltke to the German tree.

Q. Do premium ships pay off their development costs?A. 15 times.

Q. Will you release a tier 8 US premium ship?A. We have a tier 7 US cruiser ready to be released in May-June.

Q. Why are there problems with US cruisers?A. Thin armour and no torpedoes is why they’re worse than IJN cruisers.

Q. Will you add Varyag?A. Unlikely. We first have to ask collectors, then we may think about it, but not this year.

Q. When will you release a new DD line?A. Maybe at the end of the year.

Q. Will there be a Pan-European tree?A. It’s doubtful, we have no plans to add it.

Q. Will you add researchable ships to the Pan-Asian tree?A. Everything is possible.

Q. Could you do a survey about what premium ship to add next?A. We could, but it would take at least 9 months to create the ship and release it, and everybody would have forgotten.

Q. What’s going on with Tone?A. We have postponed it for now, we may move it from tier 8 to tier 6, we may also add it to the CV subclass.

Q. When will you add a tier 5-6 premium ship? Except the Warspite?A. We will release two during Spring.

Q. Will you add a female voice?A. Lisa signed up for it, look it up on the forum.

Q. Will there be more PvE events?A. Some devs are against it so they will only happen every once in a while.

Q. How many retired people play the game?A. About 25% are war veterans, 20% of players are 50 old or more.

Q. Who thought about nerfing BFT and AFT?A. Vlegris.

Q. Why did you choose Profintern and not Krasnyj Krym?A. It would be hard to read for Europeans.

Q. When will you release Soviet BB’s?A. Not soon, not this year.

Q. When will you release tier 5-6 premium ships, what nations?A. We have many plans, during all this year, we will release premiums around those tiers, there’s even a French ship.

Q. When do you plan to add Dutch and Swedish ships?A. We have no plans to do it.

Q. When will you add pocket battleships?A. This year (likely as premiums).

Q. Is there a chance you’ll add Alaska, Stalingrad and other large cruisers?A. Absolutely.

Q. Will 460mm be the biggest caliber in the game?A. Yes.

Q. Will there be reenactments of historic battles?A. Yes, but not like we did for tanks.

Q. Will you add minefields, shallows and forts?A. Forts, yes. No for the rest.

Q. Do you plan to add more customization options?A. Yes, there will be a lot of that during this year.

Q. What is your long-term perspective?A. Our goal is to bring people to the game so they can have fun.

Q. Will Mikasa be purchasable in the premium shop in the near future?A. Yes.

From “Questions to developers”

Q. Given the same caliber, are faster torpedoes spotted at a longer range than slower ones?A. If you’re talking about “Torpedo acceleration” skill, it doesn’t affect spotting range. If you’re talking about torpedoes in general, spotting range is currently affected by caliber and base speed. That means that, given the same caliber, faster torpedoes will be spotted earlier.

Q. CV’s have three different setups : strike, universal, and air superiority. And whereas the first two are often used and liked by players, the third one, air superiority, is only used in some particular cases, and often not willingly.
Are developers interested in things such as what percentage of players play with each setup? If so, are there any statistics about it? And if one setup is less used than the others, are developers satisfied of such situation?A. Yes, we have statistics about what setup is used by how many people. Of course, we observe regular discrepancies in setup popularity, which is on top of that different for each CV. Our goal is not to make every setup on every ship have the same popularity, and even if it was, it’d be difficult to achieve. We are rather pleased with the current situation.

Q. Do you plan to have the music change while in port, in particular in the premium port? With a premium account, there’s one theme for all 6 ports, and without, there are some 3 themes. I’m fed up listening to the same track over and over again.A. Perhaps, but it’s more likely that we’ll make it possible through mods (when we’ll allow to mod game music).

Q.

1. What is the detection range penalty when AA is firing? Does is change with the nation and tier of the DD? (not interested by CA/CL’s and BB’s)

2. Will it be possible to counter radars, like it was done with BB’s? [I don’t know what the BB bit is about]

3. Will you give a free reset for certain captain skills, in particular Torpedo acceleration (due to the introduction of radars)?

4. Why does Farragut have a longer firing range than Mahan. After all, the range finder on Mahan is higher than on Farragut.

A.

1. Detection range penalty for AA fire is determined for each ship. We did it for balancing reasons.

2. There won’t be any direct counter. We believe it won’t be necessary.

3. There won’t be any free reset when we release a new ship line or radars, we have no reasons to do it.

Q. Would you consider increasing Lo Yang’s torpedo speed by 2-3 kn (for the 9km ones), they have the lowest damage among the DD’s of her tier?A. Their damage is a bit lower than Benson’s. But she’s primarily a gunboat, and her average damage is fine. And you can mount HAS on her so a buff to this already formidable ship is not needed.

Q. When will you merge doubloons with the currency of other WG titles?A. We’re working on it but I can’t give any specific date yet.

JamesWhite explained why WG prefer the name Profintern to Krasny Krym.
“Foreigners tend to shorten long Russian names. Profintern will certainly be dubbed Profi, just like Gremyashchy became Grem. And now, how would Krasny Krym be dubbed? It’s already read quite differently in a lot of languages. But in general, ship names are work in progress and thus they may be changed. And the fact a ship exists doesn’t mean it will go through production without any changes.”

1.Are there plans to add two different types of premium camouflage for premium ships so that they can be painted to give different bonuses (avoidance or stealth)?
– There are plans to implement a third camo type for credits, which will grant both types of combat bonuses. Moreover, all gold camos should also recieve both bonuses and thus solve the problem of choice once and for all.

2.Are there any plans for purchasable ports or will they be added for free in updates from time to time?
– No plans for paid ports yet.

3.Are you planning on adding marks of excellence(or whatever the warships version is) to the game?
– Yes, this is a good feature. Maybe someday, but not in the near future.

4.What do you think of the current state of Yamato vs Montana? (Yamato performing way better than it’s american counterpart)? Will there be changes?
– Yes, Montana will be slightly buffed in one of the next patches.

5.Will fighters be given an option to carry anti ship rockets with a reduced speed till used?
– There are plans, but that’s a long-term perspective.

6.How about different ammunition in different turrets, a way to load HE in one turret and AP in another?
– We don’t see any sense in this, it would be quite difficult to aim due to different shell ballistics.

7.At high resolutions(4k for example) it is nearly impossible to play because the UI does not scale up, but remains the same amount of pixels, making it appear super small, are there any plans to address this?
– The problem is solvable, the interface department is working on it.

8.What can you tell us about karma? They are the statistics that you can communicate and your conclusions?
– The karma systen is working quite well and we are content with it. We will develop it further, but no details yet.

9.Is there the posibility of adding skills to AA and the minor cannons on ships. Like boosted accuracy, range, or dmg of the guns? Or even better, make AA shoot torpedoes with low accuracy? It would help Arkansas/Albany and so on.
– The last patch brought such skills.

10.Will the ability to manual drop 6 torpedoes 500m next to a BB to instakill it (because it is a BB and cannot evade in time) ever be nerfed/adjusted? Especially in high tiers where you can drop 8 or 12 torpedoes…
– A BB can adjust it’s course beforehand and use it’s own AA and the one of it’s allies to thin out the planes. We are content with the current state.

11.We know we will see more ARP ships when it will be declared a success. Will we ever see a ARP Yamato?
– Watch the news.

12. Do you see the PVE Co-op mode as a training ground to test the ships or to grind stock ships to unlock/equip better modules?
– The co-op mode has many sides to it, everyone can see it how he wants.

13.Is ranked matchmaking actually random or somehow based off of a players stats?
– The matchmaking orients itself only on the player’s rank and league.

14.Will ammo or repair costs be exempted from PvE mode like in Armored Warfare (consumables still cost)?
– No such plans. What for?

15. Is it possible to just add incomplete lines if there are no suitable ships to fill a certain tier? Like Armored Warfare does with tanks?
– Sooner or later there will be incomplete branches. We don’t exclude such a possibility.

17. Sweden can make a destroyer line. Can we expect this before or after initial British, French and Italian trees?
– Watch the news.

18. are there any plans for another Kamikaze R style mission in the future because its surprisingly enjoyable to complete these tasks and get a ship as a reward „smile“-Emoticon (much more fun in my opinion than wots personal missions which are so grindy and inconsistent)
– There are plans. “Project R” was only a first part of a big event, there will be a second one. We will implement a bunch of improvements as to launch an even better event next time.

19.Any news about the Tone?
– An interesting ship with interesting possibilities. It’s currently being actively considered.

20.Would you ever consider features from other navy games like Navyfield or Steel Ocean?
– We have our own game, although in a similar setting. We do study and consider the experience of our colleagues, however during development we focus on our own ideas and player feedback.

21.Would you be able to share an approximate number of players playing wows worldwide?
– There are 6 million players worldwide.

22. What do you think about the Wows Playerbase? Substantial, growing ?
– The amount is gradually falling, then sharply growing after a patch and then declining again. The current situation suits us, ew’ll try to enlarge the playerbase if possible.

23. Any thoughts about a second IJN and US CV line?
– Watch the news.

24. What’s the future plans for CVs?
– Nothing specific yet.

25. Any more maps in planning? Maybe Gibraltar Straight, Halong Bay or Bay of Leyte style?
– New maps are constantly in development. Nothing specific about the mentioned ones.

26. The so called “Reichkriegsflagge” is in the flag.dss file and also mapped via the flags.atlas file in the same directory. (on the picture alongside the current germany flag /files/justpaste/d281/a10961526/i8x9n90.jpg). Why is it in the client if you are saying that you don’t want to add it?
– This flag sometime appeared in one of our gameplay videos, but we decided not to implement it.

27.Regarding the “Reichkriegsflagge”: Could we achive some sort of compromise where you still deliver the game without it but letting the users modify the flags more freely because you copied the current germany flag over the other 2 existing ones that are not used and change the variables for the ships that are affected like Emden, Dresden and so on? – Modifications oftentimes help to resolve problems with preferred flags.

28. In the dev bulletin about the next major Patch 0.5.3 you were talking about that you will be able to fight against undesirable mods more effectively. Which mods are “undesirable” except aim assist mods that are of course undesirable?
– Nice try ;) We won’t do any advertisement.

29. Couldn’t you just add basic tutorials plus several advanced ones and nerf the OP sealclub ships (Umikaze, Wakatake, damn St Louis,..) that ruin the newb experience instead?
– We are working on this.

30. Could the current game engine support VERY big maps “à la Planetside 2”, where flotillas would fight for territories, assault islands with amphibious landings to take their control and benefit from their airports/ports/fortifications/respawn bases, etc… ?
– The current iteration of the engine cannot do this, but there is a possibility. If a need for this comes up, we could implement such a map. But the problem lies with the ship models. To draw all polygons, “super graphic cards” are needed.

31: Could the Katori be able to use it’s plane? That would be cool, even if it was useless.– It will be able.

32: Sims buffs were welcome, but it’s still awfully supbar. Any plans to buff it again and make it as good as Blyskawica/bring it closer of its former glory? (better shell speed, hp, turret hp,…) Or even to downtier it with a compensation?
– The ship is in need of a rebalance, but for now we are watching the statistics.

33: Changes in 0.5.3 will globally buff some ships’ AA and nerf others. Moreover, a lot of cruisers will lose the AFT skill range bonus. Are they plans to compensate those changes, the way you did for Albany and Kutuzov? Especially for what concerns premiums ships, which shouldn’t be nerfed according to WG policy (Yubari, Murmansk and maybe Warspite’s AA, etc…).
– A nerf will be compensated accordingly.

34.Will there be an American Premium that can be used for leveling the captain?
– Two American premium BB’s will come in the near future.

35.Will there be at least one italian and french premium ship during 2016?
– Watch the news.

36. Will the WoWs game client will be localized in other languages lilke WoT and WoWp in the near future?
– Yes, sooner or later.

37. When (if ever) can we mod the Python scripts?
– The question is being discussed.

38- Are there plans for the Devs at the St.Petersburg office to interact with more players from outside Russia than just Russian players only? (p.s: the Community Managers from NA&EU are doing mediocore job on keeping communicating with players)
– We are satisfied with the work of foreign departments regarding the community. (TN: are you serious…?)

39- Will there be major upgrades to the BigWorld game engine this year to enable more game features such as destructible land objects ,weathers…etc?
– Weather will come soon, destructible objects less so. The engine will be improved if needed.

40-Do the Devs have any confidences on making the game a little little little bit more complex (not asking for War Thunder like complexity) ?Currently,many of the game mechanics are too simplified , ex; aiming,damage control party mechanics,AA mechanics ….etc.
– The game will develop and be improved, there will be more possibilities someday.

41-.Its confirmed the RU cruisers,Germany BBs and RN cruisers will be released this year.Are there plans to introduce more branches other than the mentioned ones this year?
– Watch the news.

42-Do the Devs have any alternative plans to replace the very restricted and game breaking of the current CV load out system?
– Not right now.

Q. I found out on warshipstats [Russian server] the following statistics regarding Sims.

1. Average damage dealt is on par with tier 2-3 DD’s.

2. Average xp isn’t so bad, but in comparison with other DD’s of its tier, only Hatsuharu is lower.

3. Regarding win rate, only four ships are lower (Mutsuki, Fubuki, Shimakaze and Gearing, but the last two ones are not really relevant because of the gameplay at tier 10).

And on the base that there are about 40 DD’s in the game, it’s almost always at the bottom of the list.

So I wanted to know what is your concept of balance.

In the past, there were problems with Atago and Yubari, but you recognized it and fixed them so they’re very good ships now. After all, there were times when I was on the brink of selling my Atago, but thankfully, I didn’t.

And now, there is the same problem with Sims, so why isn’t anything done? When I bought it, it was a fine ship but now it gathers rust in my port.

A. I fear that I cannot comment on unofficial sites statistics. According to our stats, win rate and average damage is close to Mahan, kill/death ratio is also fine. It’s a US DD and needs a particular playstyle but there’s nothing currently to improve on it.

Q. During an official stream, one of the devs said that when they release a new line of ships, they tend to be a little less performing so that they don’t have to be nerfed in the future but only buffed – it’s better received by players. Does this mean that German BB’s will share the same fate as, for instance, German cruisers which haven’t received any buffs yet?

A. I’m not sure I remember that statement but let me explain: we try not to tamper with ships characteristics (stats) after they have been released (it’s quite frustrating for the players), and that’s why we try to be careful not to release ships too powerful or unbalanced. And releasing ships too weak is also bad because players simply won’t research and buy them. Generally, we try to find the middle ground or at least remain as close to it as possible.

Q. In the game, each ship class has a specific role, which can even be found on the loading screen before a battle. It it said that cruisers are supposed to hunt DD’s (firstly) and support BB’s (secondly). I don’t have any problem regarding the second task, especially since patch 0.5.3 gave cruisers the ability to act as AA platforms once more, but I’m intrigued by the first task.

How do you fight a DD? First of all, you have to find it, light it up and keep it spotted, which gives you the chance to fire on it.

What do we currently have at our disposal to detect a DD? Generally, a DD is detected because:

1) planes spotted it.

2) friendly DD’s spotted it.

3) it entered detection range to launch close range torpedoes.

If we take into account that there aren’t any planes in the sky (because of the last updates, CV are becoming extinct), only friendly DD’s can spot enemy DD’s. But now we also have to take into consideration that DD’s are not always balanced on each team (number of DD’s and/or their nation) and that DD’s sometimes are sunk very quickly after the start of a battle. Thus, we end up with 2-3 DD’s on one team and not one one the other.

Let us return to the role of cruisers in countering DD’s. Most cruisers have a detection range of 10-14km. Most IJN DD’s are detected at 6km. So DD’s perfectly see cruisers and all of their movements whereas cruisers only know that there is a DD around (with Sit. Awareness).

Moreover, DD’s can launch torpedoes against pursuing cruisers, but cruisers are helpless and can only rely on their maneuverability, which is rather low at higher tiers. In such cases, cruisers cannot fulfill their role. Without help from CV’s (and there are often times when there is none in a battle), cruisers haven’t got a chance to spot and sink DD’s, except if the DD is a bad player and sail into detection range.

Now let us suppose that a DD gets spotted, cruisers fire at it immediately.

One salvo won’t sink the DD. It requires 3-4 salvos (even more since 0.5.3 – survival expert) to destroy a DD, assuming that not all shells damage modules (lesser damage dealt). Given the rate of fire of 203mm guns, this will take about 20 to 32 seconds.

What can the DD do? Smoke. A DD can avoid death simply by staying inside its smoke. Cruisers can risk heading into the smoke with HAS but then the DD can fire its torps at 2-3km which will be nearly impossible to avoid. Cruisers will also be lit at 14-18km if they just fired and all of their movements will be known to the invisible DD, which will be able to take countermeasures.

All in all, cruisers don’t have the means to fight DD’s efficiently whereas DD’s can fight cruisers by staying invisible and launching long range torpedoes. And in case of mistakes, it can escape using smoke and its higher speed.

Actual question: How well are cruisers supposed to fight DD’s without the help of their team mates and thus fulfill one of their roles?

A. Despite the situations you described in length, cruisers remain DD’s worst enemies because of the following reasons:

Maneuverability – less chance to get hit by a torpedo

Rate of fire and accuracy – more chance to hit and to adjust aim

Consumables – float plane or HAS

Speed

This is even proven by statistics: cruisers are the best at fighting DD’s, be it in average damage done to DD’s or number of DD’s destroyed.

Q. Will you introduce missiles equipped ships?

A. No, such technology is outside of the time frame we set for the game.

Q. Will the tier 10 German BB be the H-41? And when will German DD’s be released?

A. German DD’s are on our long term plan, it’s too early to speak about it yet. Indeed, it will be H-41.

Q. 1. Will we be able to see full post-battle statistics for each ship directly in game?

2. It wouldn’t be so bad if we could see other players stats directly in game as well. So that when clan functionalities are introduced, it would be the best tool to find players with approximately the same skill as ours.

More questions:

1. How much increased accuracy does Gun fire control system mod 1 give?

2. What is the xp and credits penalty for playing in Coop mode?

3. What is the duration of smokescreen? Will there be more information on the interface regarding this matter?

A. 1-2. We intend to rework the post-battles stats screen, that is for sure. Regarding detailed and other players statistics , it’s far on our list. It’s hard to tell at the moment.

Following questions:

1. Dispersion is reduced by 7%.

2. In coop mode, players receive 40% less credits and 30% less xp.

4. It depends on the ship. Regarding smoke duration, we’ll examine this proposal, it seems interesting. Regarding smoke boundaries, there will be a new visual effect.

Q. Will you change camouflages on premium ships?

A. We have no plans on changing permanent camouflages.

Q. Regarding the last captain skill point which requires 9.9M xp points, when I have to retrain a 18pts captain (without paying doubloons), it requires 5M or 2.5M xp points (FIVE OR TWO AND A HALF MILLIONS!!).

Will this be changed in the near future?

A. Unfortunately, we don’t plan to address this issue before patch 0.5.5. But we do plan to fix this. We still don’t know precisely how we’ll fix it.

Q. Why is there nearly in every battle a player named “RenamedUser####” ? Is it a bot?

A. It’s not a bot. It’s a player who had his account renamed because of game rules violation.

Q. 1) Training rooms are already implemented on the server and can be used through mods or modifications in config files. Why don’t you implement it in the standard client? Are there any technical difficulties?

2) What do you intend to do with golds and doubloons? Some say we’ll be able to convert one into the other. Others, that they will be merged into a single currency Whom to believe? And why aren’t they merged yet? You promised it’d be done after Open beta.

A. 1) Because they aren’t properly implemented yet.

2) Last official information on this matter can be found here. I’m afraid I can’t add anything else.

Q. Do you plan on reducing the chance of main guns / torpedo tubes destruction? Why is the destruction linked to a binary function – lucky, module intact / unlucky, turret destroyed? I can’t believe there’s some complex formula behind it since a shell can destroy a turret without damaging the ship, which means it all depends on RNG.

A. We’re looking into several different means to address the issue some ships have with their main guns being often destroyed.

Mechanically speaking, it’s not a question of belief, but of facts. It’s all very simple: each turret has a “strength” value, when it is depleted, the turret is destroyed. Every time a shell lands on a turret, there is chance it will break (temporarily). The less “strength” is remaining in a turret, the more chance it has of being unusable (or destroyed).

Q. Does the new camouflage on the Aoba only increase ship xp? Or does it increase free xp and captain xp by 100% as well? Does it increase credits earned?

A. It increases the experience of the ship, which means captain xp and free xp as well (the latter is tied to overall xp). It has no impact on credits earned whatsoever.

Q. As we all know, Mogami was nerfed in the last patch. Despite the ship being my favourite cruiser, I think that the nerf was needed since the range of its 155mm guns was problematic. Nevertheless, I believe that the nerf was a bit excessive. First, turret rotation. Currently, without “expert marksman”, turrets rotate in 51.4s, with the perk, in 42.9s. In my opinion, it’s a bit too slow. I think that it wouldn’t be unreasonable to set turret rotation of 155mm guns at the same value as 203mm guns. Secondly, firing range. At the moment, it is set at 15.1km. In comparison, New Orleans has 16.2 and Admiral Hipper, 17.7. Moreover, Mogami doesn’t have thick armour. Taking that into account, I think you could increase its firing range by 1.5km. What do you think?

A. We will soon increase its firing range (we already talked about that several times). Nevertheless, according to stats collected during several days after the patch has been released, Mogami is still performing well, surpassing Hipper and New Orleans.

Judging by the statistics, Mogami didn’t suffer so much.

Q. The report system is not well suited to the game realities, do you plan on improving it?

A. The current system of reporting players who are not respecting the rules is not working as we had hoped. We will improve it, a new concept is already done, we’re implementing it. Stay tuned for our announcements, we may share our plans in more details in due course.

Q. Questions about 0.5.3

1) How much was the bonus to manual selection of targets nerfed ?

In patch 0.5.2, it was 1.5. According to you, it is now 1.1.

2) Regarding the AA defense consumable, could it be possible to know exactly which large caliber AA guns are affected by it and on what ship?

3) Would it have been too hard to write down all changes in AA stats for every ship (before and after comparison) in the patch notes?

4) Regarding the rebalance of AA.

IJN cruisers and BB’s AA defense was significantly nerfed, particularly given that airplanes are faster and more durable. AA on these ships became worse than in 0.5.2. For instance, Aoba had 40 AA stats, it has 36 now. Fuso had 31, now 34. Nagato had 38, now 41. Myoko had 50, now 51. Those minimal increases don’t make up for the buff planes got. What was the reason behind the nerf of IJN ships AA?

5) According to the information you put in patchnotes, it seems you don’t spend a lot of time doing them or you’re afraid of giving too much information to players, or do you believe unnecessary to reveal all the information regarding changes?

6) Regarding DD’s, it is the second patch in a row you buffed them. Are you not happy that there are 4-6 DD’s on each side in every battle? Based on their numbers in battles, please explain your love for DD’s.

7) Regarding cruisers. Cruisers main roles are fighting DD’s and AA defense. Why do cruisers have to choose between AA defense consumable and HAS? Choosing one leaves you ineffective in one of your main roles.

A. 1) The bonus is 1.1.

2) All guns with calibers of 25mm or higher. It works on every ship that has the right armaments.

3) Yes, it would have needed a giant spreadsheet. In this case, we decided we would share the general thought behind the changes.

4) No, ships equipped with good dual-purpose guns now have better AA than before and ships without those guns have now a slightly weaker AA. Changes didn’t specifically target IJN ships.

5) That information is not deliberately hidden. Sometimes, we forget to add certain elements in the patchnote. In this case, it makes no sense to add several pages of information that won’t tell anything to most players.

6) We are quite happy with current DD population. Soon, there won’t be as much DD’s since we’re implementing new options for cruisers. Stay tuned.

7) Because you can’t be a one-man army Rambo. Repair party + float plane + a slot for AA defense or HAS. It’s more than enough.

Q. Are there any plans to show the time aircraft squadrons needs to resupply? There are certain times when a new type of planes is nearly the same as the previous one but the resupply time is much longer.

A. We don’t plan to, but it’s a great idea. I will pass it on.

Q. Last year, you talked about changing the bow on Admiral Hipper, in the same manner as Tirpitz. When will this be done?

A. We’re still working on it.

Edit : Sub_Octavian was on holiday so he’s catching up now and it’s going a bit fast for me to translate everything in due time. You will have to wait a bit for the rest

Q. Regarding the new VMF cruisers, why did you chose to add two Project 68-K ships (Shchors and Chapaev) and leave out Project 68-bis (Mikhail Kutuzov)? Could you also shed some light on what ship project does Budyonny is based on?

A. Shchors is Project 28, Chapaev (stock hull) is Project 68, Chapaev (upgraded hull), Project 68-K, Budyonny is Project 94. We did not feel the need to add another Project 68-bis as there already is a premium ship based on that project.

Q. Questions regarding team battles.

1. How long will the maximum tier allowed in Team battles remain at 8, and respectively, when will tier 9 and 10 ships be allowed in TB?

2. When do you plan to (and do plan to at all) to add rankings to team battles, like a top 100 list?

3. With the introduction of Team battles, I cannot stop thinking about the implementation of clan functionalities, a global map and other amazing stuff. Do you plan to introduce those elements?

A. 1. We plan to allow tier 9 ships to enter TB 6 weeks after the start of the “season”. We still don’t know when we will stop the season and tally the results.

2. We don’t know yet, stay tuned.

3. We have a group of developers already working on those aspects of the game. When we have concrete elements to show, we will naturally share them with you.

A. They are displayed on every ship, you just have to find them. Some carriers have them hanging on the side of the ship.

Q. What did you do to Tirpitz in patch 0.5.3? Since then, I get citadelled from all ranges, from 12 to 20km, when before I wouldn’t fear any citadel hits from BBs at those distances.

A. We haven’t made any changes to armour values or main/secondary guns shells that could have affected Tirpitz. I just checked, average damage dealt to Tirpitz by BB’s has decreased by 500 after the patch. It may thus be just an impression.

Q. 1. Why are new maps created only for tier 9-10 ships? Do you prioritize high tier content? I spend most of my time playing at tier 5-8, and I’d like to be able to play on new maps at these tiers. I understand that ships at those tiers don’t have as much range as say Yamato but they have higher speed to compensate. Haven’t map developers considered lowering the ship tier of new maps?

2. Do you want to kill two birds with one stone? If you reduce the number of CV’s to one on each team, it will result in

-having more CV players waiting in the queue and thus more battle with CV’s (since only two CV’s could join a battle at any given time), which would please AA oriented cruisers and BB’s.

-players sailing on ships with weak AA stop whining because they get focused by two CV’s at the same time (this particularly affects high tier battles).

What do you think?

A. 1. Yes, we focus more on high tier content. That is why we don’t plan on adding new maps for low and mid tier battles.

2. If truth be told, your idea isn’t so great. I agree that when facing only one carrier, CV players can play more peacefully. But there are some drawbacks. First, in such cases, a lot depends on one player, and if this player doesn’t play very well, his team will suffer from it. Moreover, in 2v2 CV battles, there’s more chances that CV’s engage each other, at least at the beginning of the battle. So, we have no reason to change the limit on the the number of CV’s in each battle.

Q. 1. As the team leader, can I kick players from my team without having to pass a vote? I’m asking this because it happens that some people show up one or two times, they don’t play regularly and the team is full.

2. When HE shells hit their target, it often shows that some module was destroyed but it doesn’t say which and no damage is shown. Why is it so? After all, when a module is damaged, the ship should lose health.

A. 1. You cannot. However, it shouldn’t be a problem. If they’re not regularly connected, it should even be easier to pass a vote. In any case, a vote is needed to kick players out of a team. It’s a kind of protection against abuses.

2. Not in the slightest. External modules, such as gun turrets or AA batteries have their own HP. Damage dealt to them doesn’t deplete the ship HP pool. If you’re talking about the engine, it is located inside the ship and thus any damage dealt to it is reflected on the ship HP. Regarding the display of module damage, if you’re talking about the ribbon, it’s awarded for any critical hits. And icons showing what module has been damaged are shown above the ship that had a module hit.

Q. 1. Isn’t Arkansas Beta’s survivability too low? Without any AA, she’s an easy target for CV’s and team mates never (or rarely) help, so she’s taken out early in the game.

2. Will it be possible to assign different turrets to different sectors? For instance, bow turrets aim to the left and stern turrets to the right.

3. At the beginning of a battle, without touching the mouse, why do all the turrets turn to starboard?

4. Do you plan to add an official Aim assist or is it definitely a NO? It could be a high level perk with some restrictions to the class of ships.

5. Will you add captain skills only available to certain classes?

6. Will you implement a warning for players who are going to launch torpedoes when team mates are in front of them?

7. Will 76mm AA guns and lower (similar to the smallest secondary gun caliber) be able to fire at other ships?

8. Will there be consumables that increase the armament of the ship(such as AA, secondary guns or torpedo tubes)?

9. I don’t see the problem in adding underwater torpedo tubes. It would help BB’s fighting each other at close range without having to ram each other. Did you postpone such idea or have you decided not to introduce such armament?

10. Visual effects of ships sinking could be improved (with ammo explosions like what happened to HMS Hood). Is something planned in that regard?

A. 1. No, it isn’t. Damage received is in the average. Don’t forget that players owning this ship usually play better than the majority of players at that tier.

2. No (it’s a suggestion and not a question).

3. Turrets try to line up with your aim by the shortest path. If your aim is exactly in the middle, they tend to turn to the right.

4. No plans to add it at the current moment.

5. It’s unlikely (it’s a suggestion and not a question).

6. It’s unlikely (it’s a suggestion and not a question).

7. No, their effectiveness would be too low for the amount of server load it would add (it’s a suggestion and not a question).

8. It’s unlikely (it’s a suggestion and not a question).

9. Yes, our decision is final [not to implement underwater tubes].

10. We may improve visuals for sinking ships but right now, we’re working on improving smoke visuals and weather effects (it’s a suggestion and not a question).

Q. Soviet cruisers up to tier 5, including Profintern, have 130mm guns. AFT, BFT and EM will thus work on those ships. But aren’t these captain skills only supposed to work for DD main guns?

Soviet cruisers will have the highest firing range. So now that they lost their range advantage, the only pros of German cruisers will be AP damage? What other pros will Soviet cruisers have?

A. Captain skills aren’t supposed to work on DD’s but on a certain gun caliber. If a cruiser gun caliber meets the requirements, it means that the skill will work.

Concretely speaking, with AFT, Profintern will indeed have a significant firing range. However, 130mm shells and their ballistics won’t be too powerful at tier 5. I didn’t quite understand your question regarding what the “German lost”.

Regarding the particularities of Soviet cruisers, wait until they are released and you will know.

Q. Why is the selection of premium ships purchasable in game so limited? There isn’t any tier 5-8 BB. I won a gold[doubloons] contest but I have nothing to spend them on if all of the interesting stuff to buy is in the website shop. It isn’t fair, don’t you think?

I only picked questions that could be of interest for a discussion. Questions concerning basic mechanics (such as why was I spotted through smoke),Russian events, or questions already answered several times are not included.

Q. [For the sake of concision, the question is summarized]The captain skill “Torpedo acceleration” prevents me from putting high level captains on my premium DD’s (Sims, Kamikaze, etc.). So I have to choose between sailing on my premium DD’s or not taking the perk. Do you plan on doing something about that matter?

A. The skill description is clear, there’s nothing to be fixed about that skill.

Q. When do you plan to implement clans?

A. At the moment, it’s meaningless for us to give you some date since it’s still in the early stages of development. When we have something concrete to show, we’ll let you know.

Q. Why was Hindeburg’s AA nerfed? Before the patch, there were 6 2x55mm + 2 1x55mm AA batteries, now there are only 8 1x55mm. Nothing was written about that in the patch notes.

A. Yes, that’s not very nice of us. We made these changes after having reviewed the results of the Public testing so we didn’t have the time to put them in the patch notes. It happens sometimes.

Q. Is it possible to disband a team, and if so how?

A. You cannot disband a team. You can leave a team or try to force every member to leave.

Q. Why did you nerf Bogue’s AA? Although her AA rating increased by 4 points, she shoots down planes much less frequently (about 1.5 times less) – the same problem happens with Lexington and his 100 AA rating as well. This means I cannot make any mistakes when I play with her, and I know what I’m talking about, having 200 battles with her. As compensation, my planes shoot down enemy fighters a bit faster. Isn’t that a nerf?

A. AA rebalance didn’t only affect Bogue but every ship in the game. In brief, the decrease in AA efficiency is not only due to weaker AA, but also to planes going faster at that tier.

Prior to the patch, Bogue AA was a bit too strong and she could deflect strong attacks on her own.

Q. Did you evaluate the effect the smoke boundaries mod has on gameplay? Maybe It would be good to ban it in its current state? tried it the other day and I must say it’s very convenient when playing DD’s. On the other hand, you can see other smoke boundaries, which makes it easier to shoot the DD hiding inside, especially for IJN CA’s and BB’s as their shell trajectory is flatter.

A. Yes we looked into the effects it has. No, we don’t think it would be worth it to ban it.

It’s a mod made for comfort and not for allowing easier blind shooting.

We’d like to address the issue regarding smoke hitbox [I believe this is what he’s referring to] somewhere in the future. By the way, we are already working on something regarding this matter.

Q. Could you lower the cooldown on spotting planes to 300s since we can only use 3 at maximum in one battle?

A. No. We don’t want to put more incentive for fighting at long distances.

Q. Why do Nagato and Amagi have a lower firing range than Fuso despite being at at higher tier?

A. Firing range doesn’t depend only on the capacity for a gun to “propel” a shell at a certain distance but also on the ability to see the target at that distance. Fuso has higher crow’s nest than Amagi and Nagato.

I will repeat myself once more.

Effective firing range is more or less the same as in reality and takes into consideration different factors such as optics, weather, height of range finding equipment, etc. Current mechanisms are a good compromise between playability and realism.

Q. 1.Would it be possible, from a technical standpoint, to prevent the client to be modded?

2. Who decides what mod is allowed and what mod is not?

A. 1. No, we cannot prevent the client to be completely mod-free.

2. Developers and those who are in charge of the game (publishers).

Q. I seem to lose less planes when approaching a ship from the bow. Is it because AA on the sides can’t fire?

A. It’s all up to RNG. The angle of approach doesn’t affect AA efficiency. The only time when you could lose more planes is when you’re coming from the stern as you have to catch up to your target.

Now, a Chinese translation from NA:

Messages from Q&A with WOWS Chinese server manager Mr.Cheng

I’m a Chinese and the translation is made by myself, hope you can understand it. And I only pick up some interesting pieces which are related to all servers.

Q: Will there be new Chinese ships? And how about the Asian line?

A: Asian line will mainly consist of destroyers, 2-3 CL and 1-2 CA might be added. The cruiser Chung King (former HMS Aurora) is almost completed, it probably will be the next Chinese premium ship.

Q: How about Germany battle cruisers (BC)? Some of them don’t have a big gun (for example Scharnhorst only has the 280mm gun), they will be put in battleship line or cruiser line?

A: ​Germany battle cruisers are more like cruisers, most of them will be in cruiser line, and there might be a second cruiser line; also few will be in the battleship line.

Q:How about the Germany battleship (BB)?

A: Germany battle will appear in the second half of 2016, might in the third quarter.

British cruiser line will be the first British line and also appear in the second half this year.

Q: Will the battleship Missouri appear in the game as a premium ship?

A: We suggested Missouri appear in the game as a premium ship and told our idea to Belarus developer before. They agreed with us at that time, but later they changed the plan, now no news for Missouri.

A: We are contacting with Belarus developer, in the future there might be a limit of the amount of destroyers in each match, but now no final decision.

Q: When the WOT money and WOWS money (gold) will be interflowed?

A: Belarus developer hasn’t told us about this plan.

Q: Will there be a voice chatting system?

A: In game voice chatting system is in developing, we aren’t sure it will allow 12 players chat together or only for 3 grouped players. This system might appear in WOT first.

Q: Will there be a limit of shell amount in one game? Unlimited shells don’t match the history.

A: No, it’s impossible.

Now back to the usual Russian stuff:

Q. Let’s use a little analogy. We are the consumers of the final product. I don’t care how you baked the cake, who baked it, or how you prepared the cream. I put it on the table and see: instead of cherries, there are olives and sugar was replaced by salt. And you tell me what I should or shouldn’t eat? Perhaps you think it doesn’t taste good? Well, you don’t understand anything! We like the taste. And if your baker thinks something’s wrong with the cake, we don’t care! And then come the modders, who make things right, and instead of barking at them, you’d better knead the dough; we go to some trouble to help you and you’re still not satisfied.

What a shame.

A. Let’s see what you wrote:

“We are the players. I don’t care if you bake your cake according to your recipe, I don’t care what you want, I don’t care that in the end the cake is tasty and everyone likes it. Here and now I want raspberries instead of cherries and jelly instead of cream. After all, I don’t like cherries, I want the cake to have only raspberries because that’s how I like my cake. Do only as I like!”

Q. 1

And let’s not forget about the fact that when AA is firing, the detection range of the ship is increased. Sometimes, it’s better to turn off AA than to fire on enemy planes. That is mostly the case for DD’s, that don’t have strong AA and that rely on their stealth to survive.

Are you absolutely certain this is true? Currently, in Team battles, my AA focused Benson (7km firing range) doesn’t get spotted by planes at the detection range. Which allows me to shoot down planes without being detected. Prior to 0.5.3., when my AA started to fire, I got detected at 7km. Did your colleagues not give all the information in the patch notes or is it a bug? (Benson with AA modules, AFT skill and Camo expert)

2. DD’s will soon get a surprise from the new equipment planned for cruisers.

Don’t you fear that DD’s will slowly die out as a class, that assured acquisition covering half the map is a little too much? And DD’s won’t have any counter to it. Don’t you think that with the introduction of radars, the number of teamkills at high tiers will increase? Shimakazes will stay far behind in order not to be spotted, and even though their efficiency will decrease, it’s the only way they will be able to survive. With this change, BB’s will be happy to see torps coming from behind, won’t they?

3. Please explain the differences in AA defense on US DD’s before and after the patch? Even though you tried and are still trying to put them on the AA support path, don’t you think it’s not worth it in the current realities?

There are some contradictory results. Two BB’s and a DD AA can’t deflect an attack from a Shokaku at the beginning of a battle, but one barely floating BB and a DD annihilate every squadron at the end of a battle. I’m particularly interested in Fletcher, Benson and Farragut.

4. What’s the performance of low tier cruisers after the patch? Everybody is whining about Mogami, but I cannot stand playing at tier 4, even though the premium I like the most (Iwaki and Yubari) are at that tier. At their firing distance of 10km, BB’s cannot miss and more often than not, oneshot you. This means that I must sail far from the fighting (I wonder why), or else I die at most after the second salvo from a BB which has spotted me. Before, it was at least possible to maneuver at max firing distance, now it’s useless. Smoke on Iwaki makes things even worse since it lasts such a short time so the only way to use them is to stop inside, but that’s suicide since during its 40s duration, there’s a guaranteed salvo incoming and due to being immobile, it’s hard not to get hit.

You said you’ll increase Mogami firing range. What about the ships with 10km range?

5. Could you tell what captain skill to take for tier 8-9 Us DD’s to be the most effective at AA support? AFT or AA mastery?

And what module, AA range or efficiency?

A. 1. Yes, I’m sure of it. A DD with all the stealth upgrades can fire at planes without being spotted but that’s a particular tactic.

2. Let’s not panic in advance. There won’t be any “detection covering half the map”. It will be possible to counter high tier DD’s and “suicide runners” at medium ranges and the endless “firing smokes”. Cruisers still have a rather long detection range so it will possible to run from them. It’s normal. DD’s must fear cruisers and cruisers must fear BB’s. We believe that this new equipment will help high tier balance and will make battles more diverse.

3. In this case, stats aren’t very telling, but it’s worth taking into consideration that not all US DD’s focus on AA. Most of US DD players prefer main gun upgrades.

However, here’s the average number of aircraft destroyed per battle:

Farragut: 0.45 – 0.35

Mahan: 0.29 – 0.25

Benson: 0.27 – 0.63

Fletcher: 0.56 – 0.84

Gearing: 0.63 – 0.74

4. Average damage and win rate is higher on these ships than any other ships of their tier. Iwaki – 59% / 33 400+, Yubari – 53.7% / 25 500+. A buff to their stats would mean that they would be even stronger in the hands of somebody who is at least average.

5. If you want to protect yourself and shoot down more planes, focus on efficiency. If you want to support your team with AA defense fire, choose range.

Q. 1. How long will you examine these options? [I suppose he’s talking about turret destruction]. I got tired of trying hard to avoid as much damage as possible in my DD’s and CA’s just to get one or two turrets blown op.

2. As far as we know, in one of the latest updates, damage dealt to a turret is also reflected to the ship HP pool, but I saw some screenshots where a ship had nearly all turrets destroyed but had nearly all of his HP remaining. Isn’t there a discrepancy here?

A. 1. Over the course of the year but I can’t tell precisely when.

2. Damage dealt directly to a turret isn’t reflected to the ship HP. Where did you get that info?

Q. Currently, there is a lot of mods. A lot of them introduce interesting elements in the game.

Why don’t you want to implement some of these mods in the base client?

A. Why don’t we want? We examine every mod from this standpoint [possible implementation into the game].

We have plans to implement markers, minimap, different reticles, customization, a lot of minor improvements based on players surveys. For now we have compiled a large number of “requests” to be implemented in a future update (medium term, not in a near future). I’ll say that, in my opinion, if everything works out and at least half of them is released, there will be a lot of reasons to rejoice. But to disclose the list now would be unreasonable, there is still a lot of work to do. Stay tuned.

Q. 1. When taking the Survival expert skill, is the damage taken from fires and floods increased?

2. I noticed that the long range AA damage of 127/38 mk21 Mod 1 guns tier 5-7 DD’s have was not changed. Their dps was 3.25 before the patch and haven’t changed since, whereas other dual purpose guns damage have increased 2-3 times. Add to that the large increase in tier 4-5 planes survivability and other AA changes. Is it an oversight or part of the rebalance?

A. 1. Yes, the damage is in percent of max HP.

2. It was part of the rebalance. The guns on those ships weren’t the best, only later were they upgraded, that is why the next guns are a step up in efficiency. We’ll think about this and we may increase their output if needed.

Q. Will Imperator Nikolai and Mikhail Kutuzov be purchasable in game for doubloons in the future?

A. I cannot disclose such information. But we will put Imperator Nikolai up for sale regularly.

Q. I would like to know a little more about the development of the game, since the introduction of new ships and maps will invariably lead to content drought. Will you implement such elements as “water currents”, that would have their own flow speed. A violent storm would reduce speed, maneuverability and detection range. Will there be new game modes, for instance bigger games such as 20v20 or 25v25 or modes including captures of “realistic” naval bases with coastal artillery and not just and imaginary zone surrounded by buoys. Ideas such as these would rekindle players’ interest and add more dynamism to the game than new ships and maps.

A. In the near future, we’ll introduce a new ship line (Soviet cruisers), the ability to display armor on ships in port and weather effects. Besides, a couple of new modes are being tested by Supertesters but they’re only prototypes. We’re planning to add some improvements to little things here and there as well. We have also bigger innovations planned but it’s still very early to speak about them. Everything seems to point out that 2016 will be an intense and interesting year for the game.

Beta players helped test the game as well, why don’t we deserve some bonus?

A. Test stages vary in complexity, and each of them requires a different level of responsibility from the players taking part in them.With all due respect to beta-testers and weekend testers, alpha testers did more work and put a lot of effort in the development of the game. Moreover, it would be unfair to accuse us of neglecting the other testers – after all, they received Arkansas Beta and boosted captains. In fact, everybody who had interest in the game and wanted to help was rewarded in some way. Those who decided too late or were watching the game from afar didn’t receive anything.